ESA- the most controversial environmental protection law

Quote: Face

I've never even seen a pangolin in a zoo, let alone a friend's apartment. How is it the most trafficked?

Illegal trade in South Asia, however, has now rendered the scaly mammals the most trafficked animal on earth, with some estimates claiming that sales now account for up to 20 per cent of the entire wildlife black market. So what is it that makes pangolin so special, and why has nobody heard of them?

It is estimated that 100,000 pangolins are captured every year from across Africa and Asia, with most shipped to China and Vietnam, where their meat and scales are sold. As a result, all eight species of pangolin now feature on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of animals threatened with extinction.

Here are 12 facts to get you up to speed on one of the most threatened species on Earth.

1) There are eight species of pangolin
2) A pangolin’s tongue can be longer than its body
3) Pangolins are the only mammals in the world covered in scales
4) The name means 'something that rolls up'
5) Some climb trees, others dig holes
6) Even big cats don't know what to do with them
7) Nobody knows how long they live
8) They emit a noxious acid like skunks
9) Millions have been traded and killed in the last decade
10) Their eyesight is dreadful
11) Dating can be difficult
12) Their closest relative might not be an anteater

Quote: Pacomartin

...their meat and scales are sold.

Meat and scales?



It is odd how we assign value to things. Would anyone here really not feel some sort of sorrow if all these went gone?

Quote:

It is odd how we assign value to things. Would anyone here really not feel some sort of sorrow if all these went gone?

Sure.


If it were 10 feet tall, I might feel differently.

Quote: AZDuffman

Falling birthrates and an eventual inability to keep up the infrastructure ..

The very fact we can identify the problems is
why we'll survive. Animal species are unable
to halt their decline because they lack the
ability to recognize and fix what's wrong.
Our powers to adapt are extraordinary.

11) Dating can be difficult

I would imagine if you're dating one,
you have other problems as well.

Quote: Evenbob

The very fact we can identify the problems is
why we'll survive. Animal species are unable
to halt their decline because they lack the
ability to recognize and fix what's wrong.
Our powers to adapt are extraordinary.

Meh. It will take 2 generations to realize there is a problem. Wonks might see it, but the trend will not change. People do not need children for financial survival anymore. In fact they are more a burden than reward financially. People have them to enjoy having them, but that is the minority of people. More people prefer being child-free now. This will continue. The "male pill" will crash birth rates even further.

This will feed on itself. Europe is already probably beyond repair as is Russia. China is trying to fix their problem but they are boxed in by constraints in so many ways. Even Mexico, once a king of high birth rates, will soon level.

Look at cities like Detroit or so many smaller towns in the Rust Belt. They are dying, collapsed societies. They know they have a problem, have known for decades. They have not adapted. Now, picture more and more entire countries falling apart like this. Because in 100 years that will be the rule not exception.

Quote: AZDuffman

Meh. It will take 2 generations

You do realize people have been predicting
doom of the race in every generation since
the birth of Industrial Revolution. They all
had logical reasons, just like you do, and
all of them were dead wrong. The doom
and gloomers were really popular and
vocal in various periods too. I'm a glass half
full guy, we like to solve problems more
than we like to create them.

I knew a prepper in the 70's who had his
garage filled with survival food. Freeze
dried and Army rations, canned stuff,
3 years worth in the garage and basement.
That was 45 years ago, the world was ending
by 1980. He kept it up till about 95, then
got sick of using the food and buying more
and found another hobby. Boy, was he
disappointed he was wrong. Still is.

Quote: Evenbob

You do realize people have been predicting
doom of the race in every generation since
the birth of Industrial Revolution. They all
had logical reasons, just like you do, and
all of them were dead wrong. The doom
and gloomers were really popular and
vocal in various periods too. I'm a glass half
full guy, we like to solve problems more
than we like to create them.

I have read many predictions but they are all way shorter term and usually from natural disasters. Starvation predictions in the 70s to global warming doom today. My take is different in it is a far longer term and cycle oriented. No matter how you slice it, population is going to start to crash the next 100 years. We will probably hit 9 billion or more people this century, but then the crash comes.

Humans are societal creatures, they cannot live alone for any but the most short period of time. As the crash hits, societies will die off and die out. You will have vast, empty ghost towns. This will make it worse for the rest since the world is so interdependent now. Where we once had lots of small farms providing local food we now have tracts of McMansions.

Decline and fall is coming. Kick back and enjoy!